The Beverly Hills Human Relations Commission will recognize National Kindness Week from Feb. 14-19 by encouraging the community to participate in acts of kindness. While in previous years, Kindness Week activities have been in-person, this year a robust calendar of activities will take place mostly online and through social media.
“As we know, kindness is being friendly, generous, considerate, and so many other actions that describe acts of love,” Human Relations Commission Chair Ori Blumenfeld said. He added that it is “Fitting that Kindness Week begins on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. Kindness Week is meant to inspire all to practice and spread genuine and random acts of kindness in their own lives, this week and every single day.”
The signature event for Kindness Week is a conversation and Q&A with Leon Logothetis, best-selling author, motivational speaker and television host of the Netflix series, “The Kindness Diaries.” Logothetis has spent more than a decade traveling to over 100 countries and highlighting the good in humanity as seen in the television series. The Author Talk will be on Feb. 16, at 6 p.m. To register, visit: www.beverlyhills.org/bekind.
In March of 2020, in response to the global health crisis, then-Mayor and current councilmember John Mirisch announced the formation of the citywide Kindness Task Force, an initiative which is comprised of community members helping the City’s vulnerable senior population. The Task Force matches volunteers with seniors in the community who need an extra helping hand with anything from grocery shopping to dog walking. For many volunteers, every week is Kindness Week.
Beverly Hills resident, Mojan Ghahramani began volunteering with the Task Force shortly after it was formed. Three times a week, Ghahramani helps a 92-year-old senior nearby with her grocery shopping, mail, takes out the trash, picking up medication, errands and anything else she might need. “She’s very appreciative and I chat with her a lot,” Ghahramani told the Courier. “She used to be an actress, because she keeps telling me how famous she was. But she comes out from her balcony to talk to me so there’s a distance. You have to have a lot of patience.”
Additional Kindness Week activities include Social Media Kindness Challenges developed by the City’s Teen Advisory Committee. The challenges will be posted each day from Feb. 14-19, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter social media platforms @CommunityLifeBH.
The Human Relations Commissioners will participate in Beverly Hills Public Library’s Storytime, reading books about kindness to children. Storytime videos will be available in the media library on www.YouTube/BeverlyHillsPublicLibrary. And beginning Feb. 16, the city’s librarians will take part in Dial-A-Story at 310-285-2580. The kindness-themed book being read is “The Spiffiest Giant in Town,” by Julia Donaldson. The Beverly Hills Public Library and Teen Advisory Committee have also curated a selection of kindness books, e-books and films for people of all ages. To find them online, visit www.beverlyhills.org/kindnessweek or on the Library’s website at www.bhpl.org.
At Roxbury Park, preschoolers, seniors, and members of the Teen Advisory Committee can participate in designing “Kindness Rocks” by painting a picture or message about kindness on rocks they have been provided. The rocks will be added to the park’s Kindness Rocks Garden.
The Beverly Hills Active Adult Club is taking part in Kindness Week, as well. The club is sponsoring the delivery of 200 roses on Feb. 12. One will be sent to each senior who participates in the daily meal delivery program.
For more information, contact Human Services at 310-285-1006 or email humanservices@beverlyhills.org.
